


Run

by HardPass



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Racing, Shit talking, purification field, remnant vault, remtech, sadly no references to Liam's ugly couch, sassy pathfinder, the tempest crew at its finest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 00:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10978356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HardPass/pseuds/HardPass
Summary: Another vault, another purification field. The racers are set, the bets have been put down, and the trashtalking is real. If the Pathfinder team has to outrun black death clouds, they might as well have some fun with it, right?





	Run

**Author's Note:**

> A few things! 
> 
> Once again, I'm sure this fits in somewhere with my Jaal/Ryder timeline of shenanigans, but it could stand alone.
> 
> I've determined that crocs made it all the way into humanity's future. The ugliest shoe on earth has now become the ugliest shoe in space! 
> 
> This isn't modeled after any specific planet's vault. Embellishments and inaccuracies are mine. I didn't feel like youtubing vault runthroughs to get an idea of their layouts.

Ryder reloaded her Valkyrie as a concussion from nullifier knocked her away from her cover, scattering her gun straight out of her hands and onto the ground. 

“Butterfingers,” Liam scoffed, popping up from the remtech nodule he crouched behind to lay down enough cover fire that she could retrieve her weapon. 

They weren’t in much danger, with only a stray assembler or two running around making trouble alongside the nullifier, but as a general rule of thumb, they kept their heads down until they were in the clear. Scowling, she finished reloading her gun, and stuck her tongue out when Liam glanced over to make sure she was okay. 

“Are you two done dicking around? We’ve been down here for  _ hours  _ and I’m hungry,” Peebee complained, opting to shout over the ruckus of bullets than use her comm. 

Leaning around her pillar, Ryder finished off the last, limping assembler, scattering it to bits. The three of them concentrated their fire on the last remaining piece of scrap metal standing in their way, the persistent nullifier. The little nullifier that could, if she wanted to write a children’s story about it. She would describe it as a toaster with delusions of grandeur. 

“Ryder, it’s going to--!” Liam began. 

She rolled away before he could finish, scrambling for cover as the next shot blew apart the node she’d been sitting behind. 

“Everybody wants a piece of the Pathfinder,” she grumbled, peeking around her new sanctuary to get eyes back on the nullifier and take a few more shots at it. 

The asari giggled insanely. “Sounds like a sitcom I’d watch.” 

“Only if they cast the Pathfinder right. Did we bring any decent actresses to Andromeda?” Liam asked. 

“Out of the hundreds of thousands of people who came? There has to be at least one good one.” 

“Less yapping, more shooting! I thought you were hungry, Peebs.” 

“Yeah, but now we have a sitcom to plan!” 

By way of oppressive fire and an extreme expenditure of bullets, they managed to take out the final remtech hero--an excellent game name, if Ryder had anything to say about it--and regrouped near the console that would bring the vault back online. All of them were sweaty and grimy from crawling through the area’s extensive network of tunnels. While it was Peebee’s playground, Ryder was a little less enthused any time she had to be trapped underground for an extended length of time. 

Before she activated the vault, she hopped a few times to get the blood flowing to her legs, shaking out her limbs. “Okay, team, we’ve got a hell of a run ahead of us, and considering what it took for us to get down to this point, it’s going to suck a krogans big, salty quads to get back out. Bets all in?” 

Over the comms, Vetra jumped in.  _ “Wait. Are jump jets permitted this time or no?”  _

“The first rule of Outrun the Purification Field Club is don’t talk about Outrun the Purification Field Club. Second rules is that there are no rules after Drack nearly fell to his death in an endless pit. Jump jets, guns, biotics, whatever. It’s all game. Last one to the console has to do the walk of shame and buy drinks for the entire  _ Tempest  _ next time we make port.” 

Peebee also gave a little hop from foot to foot, loosening up her limbs. “Bring it on, bitches, I was born ready! This body was made for hard core aerodynamics.” 

“On those nubbly little legs? Yeah right,” Liam shot back, stowing his weapons and kicking his boots to check the traction. 

_ “Ryder,”  _ Jaal interrupted worriedly  _ “Remember that time when you tripped into the assembler and almost couldn’t untangle yourself?” _

She batted her eyelashes and cooed, “The time where you pretty much saved my life?” 

_ “Yes. Please don’t repeat that. These purification runs make me...what’s the word, Liam?” _

“Antsy?” 

_ “Yes. Antsy.”  _

“No such thing as ants in Heleus, babe, but I promise, I won’t go tripping into any assemblers. Any who get in my way, I’ll tackle the fuck out of. That work for you?” 

_ “Be careful, my darling one.” _

“I’m always careful.” 

_ “No,”  _ he grunted.  _ “You aren’t.”  _

“Let’s go already!” Peebee whined. 

“On your marks!” She set her hand over the console. “Get set!” She activated the module via SAM. It rippled under her touch. 

For a moment, the vault stilled. A quietness settled across all of them as they waited, tense. Then, the vault started to shift. It clicked to life, changing its structures, reforming so that it could do its job. Of course, a black, billowing cloud of death rose up on the other end of the room. 

“ _ Go _ !” she hollered, and took off running. 

Of the three of them, Liam was easily the fastest sprinter, so he took an early lead. However, once beyond the inner chamber, all bets were off as they leapt across gaps, hurtled obstacles, and dodged remnant trying to shoot at them. They traversed the first gap with ease, but each of them had to shoot their way through a cavalry of mechanics that wanted to block their way out. They never stopped running, forgoing cover and taking a few shots and burns to their armor. It slowed them just enough to level the playing field. After the first gap, Liam retained a sliver of a lead, followed by Peebee, with Ryder hot on her heels. 

She rolled out of the jump into a sprint, hurdling a low wall and using her jump jet to boost her into a small lead. They spread out after that, picking their own paths as the black cloud of doom whispered ominously at their heels. At the second crevice they encountered, she glanced over in time to see Peebee launch from a low wall, off an assembler’s head, and use her jump jet to cross the distance. 

“Points for style, Peebs!” she hollered, taking a path along the outer wall that offered fewer gaps, even if it took a little longer. 

Liam’s voice rang out around a hail of bullets as he mowed his way through a cluster of observers. “If we get points for style, you get an automatic elimination, Pathfinder!”

_ “I think she has great style!”  _ Jaal huffed over comms. 

“Aw, thanks, babe.”

“You’re an alien. You thought crocs were good fashion when you first saw Lexi’s.” 

She swung her shotgun forward before a group of remnant could get in her way, firing off a few shots. Skidding past them, catching a few shots with her vest, and leaping the last gap before the first tunnel. She chanced a glance over one shoulder to confirm the death cloud billowed after her. Predictably, it was. 

The tunnel had its own obstacles. Containment fields that had been benign on the way in now snapped at her shields if she veered into them. She was forced to dodge, cutting her speed. She peppered fire ahead of her from her assault rifle, discouraging the loitering remnant locals from taking too much interest in her. 

The other two had taken different tunnels, all of them leading more or less the same place. When she burst out onto the platform on the other side, taking a vaulting leap off the edge and over another pit, she caught the motion of Liam also emerging. Peebee was conspicuously missing. 

“Peebs?” she called into comms. 

_ “Found an alternate rout. Access tunnel? Maintenance, maybe?” _

“Don’t get caught by that cloud.” 

_ “I mapped it on the way in. I’m good.” _

The purification field nipped at her heels, encouraging her to click it up a notch. She hopped up a set of platforms to reach a higher ledge, sweat misting her brow and trickling down the line of her back as death loomed every closer. She put on a burst of speed, making liberal use of her boosters. She rolled over a low wall, came up running, and nearly smashed into an assembler that jumped out in front of her. 

“Mother fucking remtech piece of shit!” she swore, shoving it aside.

_ “Ryder? What’s wrong?”  _ It wasn’t often that Jaal’s voice could be described as “pitched.” 

“Fine! Making good on my promise not to tumble into any assemblers.” 

_ “Keep your feet, kid,” _ Drack rumbled.  _ “I’ve got money riding on this.”  _

“Not the first time you made a piss bet,” Liam sang from nearby. 

_ “Watch it, pipsqueak.”  _

Ryder glanced over her shoulder again. Big mistake. The cloud yawned ever closer, threatening to swallow her if she lost even a few more feet of space. If she didn’t pick up the pace, buying the  _ Tempest  _ drinks would be the least of her worries. 

“Fuckshitmotherfucker,” she muttered viciously. “Have I mentioned I hate these fucking vaults?” 

_ “Are you kidding? They’re amazing!”  _ Peebee shrilled ecstatically. 

Insane. As always. 

Putting on another burst of speed, launching over the last of the big gaps, she put her head down and screamed into the next tunnel. This time, she made use of her shotgun as she ran. She had no time and no patience to deal with the remnant that swarmed to hinder her progress. Her armor took a few solid hits, but nothing that would do more than bruise. Threading between more hostile containment fields that malfunctioned the tech in her armor and disabled her guns, she managed to get a little bit of a lead on the purification field at her back--and hopefully the other two. 

On the way in, bridges ran hatchback to get down to a lower part of the vault. They had taken them as they were built on the way in, but on the way out, she and Liam used their jump jets to vault from one level to the next. Peebee was still nowhere to be seen, but she and the other human were neck-and-neck. 

When they reached the top of the hatchback paths, the asari burst out of a closed vent above their heads and dropped down a good twenty meters ahead of them. 

“Peebee, you wank!” Liam spat. 

Ryder kicked off of a low wall. Applied jump jet thruster. Closed the distance and shot ahead of Liam by a good margin. 

For a minute she forgot about the purification field. They closed in on the console that would shut it down, and there was no way she would get caught owing the entire crew drinks. Being Pathfinder didn’t pay  _ that _ well. 

From somewhere in the background, buzzing over the comms, yet far away, the others cheered and hollered. SAM kept offered them live updates with the race status like the world’s most monotone sports anchor. 

Liam was the fastest in an all out sprint, but the last leg had more to do with vaulting obstacles. Peebee maintained her lead, but Ryder closed the gap a significant amount, leaping and boosting with tactical precision. 

It wasn’t enough. 

The console loomed closer. Ryder let out a scream as she gave everything in her body to beating out the asari. 

Fingers stretched. 

Boosters fired. 

“Fuck you all!” Peebee cried as she got her hand on the console first. 

Ryder slapped it just after, and Liam a fraction after she did. Rounding the interface, she thrust her palm over its surface and hooked into a connection via SAM, where he worked his magic and shut down the black, billowing cloud even as it opened to swallow them. She felt the first crackle of it against her biotics as it abruptly died, stirring her hair and slapping against her cheeks as it reversed and dissolved back into the vault. 

She doubled over to catch her breath on her knees while Peebee jumped around and Liam wailed about cheating. 

“Suck my  _ dick _ , Liam! Second rule is no rules.” 

Getting her breath back, she grappled Liam around the neck and planted an affectionate kiss on his cheek. “You’ll get over it.” 

“Oy. Hey, Jaal, your girlfriend just kissed me,” he bragged, perking. 

_ “Oh good. It’s quite enjoyable, yes?”  _

“You aren’t even a  _ little _ offended?” he egged. 

_ “Not at all. You just lost a race. It was a pity kiss.”  _

“Oh, toss off,” he swore. 

Laughing, she motioned to her teammates. “Let’s get out of here. Good work today, team. Another vault corrected, another planet livable. We’re such goddamn heroes I could cry,” she sighed, leading the way back to the gravity well that would deliver them out. 

“Yeah,” Peebee agreed. “Let’s get some food.”

She listened in amusement as bets were settled back on the  _ Tempest _ , heart swelling, as it tended to do, with utter fondness for the ragtag team. She was convinced that no bigger group of misfits existed in Andromeda, and they all belonged to her. 


End file.
